Blog: Privacy

Now that information is increasingly being stored in online databases, it has created a new threat for the people/company trying to protect that information. When information used to be kept in file cabinets it was easier to protect the information because they only had to worry about someone breaking into that room or in the file cabinets. Even then it would be time consuming and hard to grab a lot of papers without people caught. Today, most companies/organizations store their information in an online database to make it easier to access information. But now it is more difficult to protect their information because, even though heavily protected, hackers can always find another way to break in. In the article "University of Maryland computer security breach exposes 300,000 records", by Patrick Svitek and Nick Anderson, they write about a information breach that happened to the University of Maryland. A hacker or a group of hackers, hacked into the university's database where they stored all student information and made an exact copy. This database contained names, social security numbers, and date of births.
The most important information was the social security numbers because the hackers could take that information and take their identity and effected their credit reports. Privacy and confidentiality is a crucial part in the progress of new media. Programs that deal with important information need to be able to protect itself against hackers. Cyber security companies are booming right now because there is such a high demand to protect peoples and companies information.